+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p721 N 4 ’20 120w
GIBBONS, HERBERT ADAMS. France and ourselves. *$1.50 (2½c) Century 940.344
20–5134
This collection of “Interpretative studies, 1917–1919,” is from the author’s war contributions to various American magazines, mainly to the Century. The burden of the book throughout is “We must see problems as France sees them, and we must help to solve them in the French way and not in the American.” Even when the author contrasts America’s “fourteen points” with what he is pleased to call France’s “fourteen points,” he does not consider the task hopeless. Contents: How we can help France; The tiger of France; World justice for France; The industrial effort of France during the war; Human currents of the war; The attitude of France toward peace; The reconstruction of northern France; The case against Caillaux; What confronts France.
“Much of the book must be classed less as history than as propaganda, though propaganda of a very high-minded type. But the inevitable shortcomings of the book add in another way to its value. It vibrates with the spirit of the war and with the generous enthusiasm that inspired those Americans to whom the true character of France had been revealed.” A. D. Hill
+ − Am Pol Sci R 14:730 N ’20 840w Booklist 16:308 Je ’20 + Boston Transcript p6 Je 23 ’20 800w + Cath World 112:119 O ’20 210w + Ind 104:67 O 9 ’20 130w
“Much of this book is now badly out of date. Aside from this, there is much that is valuable and even timely in the book. Dr Gibbons writes with vigor and clarity of vision.”
+ − N Y Times 25:300 Je 6 ’20 950w + Outlook 126:654 D 8 ’20 100w
“The chapter on the attitude of France toward peace, written about a year ago, is full of matter for thought today.” T. M. Parrott